are there any Kim Stanley Robinson fans here?

[JitterbugPerfume]

I am presently reading 2312 , and it is fascinating.I have also read The Three California's,the Forty Signs of Rain trilogy,The Years of Salt and Rice, and Galileo's Dream.

I COULD NOT get into Red Mars,and I don't know why , so I am saving the Mars trilogy for later. I also have Antarctica on my book shelf waiting to be read.

What do you recommend? How is his book about another favorite, PKD?


LETS DISCUSS KSR!

[sudopod]

1. YES

Both the Mars trilogy and Antarctica are awesome!

I am a huge fan of both the science in the Mars trilogy, as well as the politics. I'd say more, but don't want to spoiler anything.

[JitterbugPerfume]

2. I fully intend to re visit the Mars Trilogy

I think the paper back was to hard on my "old eyes" I need to get it in trade , or hard back.I hate that I can't read paperback any more , but that is just the way it is!

2312 is one of the most fascinating books I have read in a long time, I can not recommend it more highly.

[sudopod]

3. I'll be sure to check it out.

My SO and I often comment that "they don't get that sort of thing on Mars" when we hear something terrible happened in the world.

[pokerfan]

4. I enjoyed Red/Green/Blue Mars

and I'm about a third of the way through 2312 and cruising. I haven't yet read Antarctica as it seems to be more or less a retread of the Mars books. But I can recommend 'The Years of Rice and Salt.'

[JitterbugPerfume]

5. I am reading Antarctica

and so far it is really interesting .

The Years of Rice and Salt is excellent, I really loved it . I also highly recommend Galileo's Dream. It takes Galileo thousands of years into the future to the moons of Jupiter in a back and forth from his time to the distant future .

[phantom power]

6. One of my favorite book quotes is from Antarctica

First you fall in love. Then anything can happen.

[JitterbugPerfume]

7. i loved the x character!

[phantom power]

10. X was great - I liked the whole "carhartts vs parkas" theme

[Richard D]

8. I loved the Mars Trilogy

Working my way through the others.

[JitterbugPerfume]

9. I need to give the Mars books another "look"

Red Mars is the only KSR book I started but didn't finish

[PufPuf23]

21. I recall when KSR's Mars books were first issued.

I had quit new science fiction by then but also knew of KSR's PKD thesis as I was on academic/collector email lists for PKD circa 1992-1994.

However regards Mars and American fiction:

1. Bradbury's Martian Chronicles was one of the most influential books I read in grade school (during the time of Sputnik and Apollo).

2. John Carter Martian's novels are my favorite ERB and were read contemporay to Martian Chronicles.

3. The first PKD novel read belonged to my 67-68 boarding school roomate via scifi bookclub, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch. Later The Martian Time Slip blew my perceptions and led to other source material.

But quit new scifi about the time of the emergence of William Gibson.

Knew of the KSR - PKD connection and pawed the Mars books in retail outlets and chose not to buy nor read KSR. My awareness of the KSR Mar's books occurred because of the loose PKD - KSR connection.

Seems KSR was a Orange county homeboy and PKD lived his final and most secure years in Orange county (but most of life in northern California).

I have no idea of the KSR Mars books contents, assumed space opera.

Now have read the California Trilogy - I'm a native Californian. KSR uses much California ecology as frame and filler and he makes technical mistakes but to me the framing is a plus (as a Californian).

Psyching out KSR in the California Trilogy, I would ponder KSR had distant parents, an influential but sphinx grandfather, poor relations with women (often used or heartbroken, the second choice or fool), and used his high school and university friends as character models. KSR also used some PKD techniques in his writing.

Liked the California books as easy, comfortable, and familiar entertainment (and after getting 400 pages into Years of Rice and Salt and liking) work of an immature but talented novelist that that improved.

Think I will scan Leary, Alpert, and Metzger's The Psychedelic Experience (a sort of Cliff Notes version) rather the the Tibetan Book of the Dead English translation itself about the bardos et al after reading Years of Rice and Salt.

[PufPuf23]

11. Soon I will know if I am a KSR fan.

Made my 1st trip to civilization (a stoplight or a chain store) today in 4 months; a 2 hour drive through two National Forests, two Indian Reservations, and over two mountain passes in primarily timber industry lands to Humboldt Bay and McKinleyville, Arcata, and Eureka.

Bought the California trilogy plus The Years of Rice and Salt and Sixty Days and Counting. Goal was California trilogy.

Had to visit 3 three nearest decent used book stores plus a local independent to get the books, the local independent Northtown Books in Arcata, CA (Humboldt State University). The 5 books were the only KSR books in all four stores!

Back when JP posted the OP, I looked at my PKD obsession collection because thought KSR had done the intro to one of the 6 PKD Collected Letters volumes but was mistaken.

KSR did his PhD thesis on PKD and it can be purchased as a print to order for several hundred dollars. Evidently I never considered it a high priority purchase when I had the disposable income (also never bought the Underwood PKD bibliography that was always pricey and now way out of date).

[JitterbugPerfume]

12. Oh my! That is WAY out of my price range!

Enjoy Your KSR experience . The Years of Salt and Rice is nothing short of amazing.

[PufPuf23]

15. KSR is easy and entertaining to read band glad to have started.

Finished The Wild Shore. The Wild Shore reminds me far more of George Stewart's The Earth Abides than PKD's Dr. Bloodmoney.

Started reading The Gold Coast and finished about 120 pages. The Gold Coast is starting to get interesting and did not catch my attention at first.

Once finish the California Trilogy, I'ii read Years of Rice and Salt.

[bemildred]

16. So you live up towards Weitchpec/Orleans?

I just re-read Earth Abides. Better the second time. Or maybe I'm what's better now.

[PufPuf23]

24. The Years of Salt and Rice and The Wild Shore have been my two favorites

so far. Read the entire California Trilogy and Sixty Days and Counting.

Sixty Days and Counting is a political alternative history fantasy about a post Bush and 9-11 POTUS Phil Case and his environmental and political advisors in a time when the global environment had gone past the tipping point. Case liked FDR. There are a bunch of Buddhists too.

BTW I looked in the wrong books for the Philip K Dick book with an afterward by KSR.

From abebooks:

Book Description: Kerosina, Worcester Park, 1987. Hard Cover. Book Condition: Very Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Fine. First Hardcover Edition. The first hardcover edition of VALIS (whose working title, if I remember correctly, was "Valisystem A&quot accompanied by a hardcover edition of Dick's essay, COSMOGONY AND COSMOLOGY. The items are absolutely pristine, unopened in the original transparent, sealed plastic bag in which publisher Kersonia supplied the limited edition, with a white sticker bearing the limited edition number attached to the bag from the outside. AS NEW AND SIGNED BY AFTERWORD AUTHOR, KIM STANLEY ROBINSON. Signed By Afterword Author. Limited Edition

(My note: Valisystem A was returned by PKD's editors for alteration and PKD wrote an entirely different book that was published as VALIS. Tim Powers had the original manuscript for Valisystem A that was published after PKD passed on as Radio Free Albemuth. Radio Free Albemuth has been made into a movie but to date only has been shown at several film festivals.

Now I want to get the Galileo book and 2132.

Thanks for getting me started on an entertaining author.

[phantom power]

13. So far I'm liking 2312

anybody else reading it?

[JitterbugPerfume]

14. I read it

and I really loved it. I don't know how far you are into it so I won't comment on specifics , but I would like to hear from you when you finish---

[phantom power]

26. OK then, I finished it.... (modest spoilers)

I liked Swan, and part of the reason I liked her was that she sometimes wasn't completely likable

I have to say KSR continues his theme of what I think of as classic plot buildup that is eventually subverted. Here we have what I felt was a deliciously creepy development of the embodied qubes subplot, that... kinda turns out to be a nonissue in the end. He does this all the time. If I was more ambitious, I'd write up a little essay on it.

I'll call it "KSR's theory of falling action"

[Richard D]

17. Just finished it.

Loved it. Reading Galileo's dream right now. Loving it.

Here's an hour long interview with KSR about 2312

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~5/dRgGiOEq7gU/kim_stanley_robinson_tac_live-06162012.mp3

Full of spoilers.

[Odin2005]

20. "Galileo's Dream" blew my mind.

[Richard D]

22. Mine too.

[LongTomH]

27. I recently finished 2312

It contains many of KSR's ecological and social justice themes. Very interesting and convoluted plotlines and some original devices: i.e.the Lists and Extracts inserted at various points in the plot!

[petronius]

18. Red Mars took me a while to get into as well, I put it down for a while after starting

But it was definitely worth coming back to...

[Odin2005]

19. I am a huge KSR fan and I just finished "2312" today.

I also love his Mars trilogy (2312 takes place in the same universe as the Mars trilogy), minus the few ideologically-based factual errors like his thinking the Minoans were matriarchal. His Global Warming trilogy was also excellent.

The Years of Rice and Salt is a real head trip, though as a history buff I had to suspend my disbelief in the unlikeliness of his alternate history.


Also, It was weird realizing that most of the "First 100" colonists in his Mars trilogy would be of my Millennial Generation.

[theorize_hypnotize]

23. Spam deleted by UrbScotty (MIR Team)

[SheilaT]

25. I have 2312 on reserve at the library.

I have generally liked what I've ready by him. I especially like dYears of Rice and Salt.